ce the bird was changed from white to
black; the pigeon returned with his claws full of mud, from which
the man inferred that the earth was dried up; so he landed."

For other folk explanations of the black color of the crow or raven,
see Daehnhardt, 3 : 59, 65-66, 71, 369. An entirely different account
of how the crow's feathers, which were originally as white as starch,
became black, is given in out No. 71 (b).

TALE 80

WHY THE OCEAN IS SALTY.

Narrated by Jose M. Paredes of Bangued, Ilocos Sur. He heard the
story from a farmer.

A few years after the creation of the world there lived a tall giant by
the name of Ang-ngalo, the only son of the god of building. Ang-ngalo
was a wanderer, and a lover of work. He lived in the mountains, where
he dug many caves. These caves he protected from the continual anger
of Angin, the goddess of the wind, by precipices and sturdy trees.

One bright morning, while Ang-ngalo was climbing to his loftiest
cave, he spied across the ocean--the ocean at the time was pure,
its water being the accumulated tears of disappointed goddesses--a
beautiful maid. She beckoned to him, and waved her black handkerchief:
so Ang-ngalo waded across to her through the water. The deep caverns
in the ocean are his footprints.

This beautiful maid was Sipgnet, the goddess of the dark. She said to
Ang-ngalo, "I am tired of my dark palace in heaven. You are a great
builder. What I want you to do for me is to erect a great mansion on
this spot. This mansion must be built of bricks as white as snow."

Ang-ngalo could not find any bricks as white as snow: the only white
thing there was then was salt. So he went for help to Asin, the ruler
of the kingdom of Salt. Asin gave him pure bricks of salt, as white
as snow. Then Ang-ngalo built hundreds of bamboo bridges across the
ocean. Millions of men were employed day and night transporting the
white bricks from one side of the ocean to the other. At last the
patience of Ocean came to an end: she could not bear to have her deep
and quiet slumber disturbed. One day, while the men were busy carrying
the salt bricks across the bridges, she sent forth big waves and
destroyed them. The brick-carriers and their burden were buried in her
deep bosom. In time the salt dissolved, and today the ocean is salty.

Note.

I know of no close analogues to this etiological myth.

The hero of the tale, Ang-ngalo, is the same as the Aolo (Angalo)
mentioned in the